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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28654122">A Visit From the Queen</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/TammyRenH/pseuds/TammyRenH'>TammyRenH</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Supernatural</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Case Fic, Gen, Magic, POV Sam Winchester, Sassy Rowena MacLeod, Spiders, a bit of flirting</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 06:16:04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,976</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28654122</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/TammyRenH/pseuds/TammyRenH</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam hasn’t used magic for a long time. But a visit from Rowena while working a case might just change that.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Rowena MacLeod &amp; Sam Winchester</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>SPN J2 Xmas Exchange</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A Visit From the Queen</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/kingstoken/gifts">kingstoken</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I am so happy I was able to write this pinch hit gift for kingstoken for the spn J2 Xmas exchange. This fic rakes place two years after Jack became God (because there were years after that Sam and Dean hunted, that is my story and I am sticking to it.)</p><p>Sam and magic is one of my true loves, I hope you enjoy this story.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Dean is much better at this than he is, but Dean is at the hospital with Donna.</p><p>Sam adjusts the pressure he is placing on the tension wrench and replaces the pick and listens for the click that just doesn’t seem to want to come.</p><p>He glances nervously down the hallway, but it is just as deserted as when he arrived a few minutes earlier. He takes the pick back out of the lock, readjusts his grip on the wrench once more.</p><p>Dean is definitely better at this, faster too.</p><p>Maybe it’s the gloves. Or maybe he is just rusty.</p><p>Finally, there it is, the tiny click that signals Sam’s success. Sam stows away Dean’s lock picking tools in his pocket and after checking the hallway one more time, slips into the apartment.</p><p>His phone pings just as he enters the living room.</p><p>It’s Dean.</p><p>‘She’s gone’, is all it says.</p><p>Two days previously, a woman named Caitlyn McClain had gone to a bar, where she met Misty Banks, a pretty twenty-five-year-old with black curly hair and chocolate eyes. They had a few drinks, they shared their first kiss over their third margarita, and at the end of the evening Caitlyn found herself in Misty’s apartment, in Misty’s bed. She woke up in the pre-dawn hours to the sound of Misty screaming.</p><p>Spiders were crawling all over Misty. As Misty continued to scream, one crawled out of her mouth, tiny little legs skittering over Misty’s kiss-swollen lips.</p><p>By the time Caitlyn scrambled out of bed, found her pants with her phone still wedged in the pocket, and called for help, Misty was dead.</p><p>As fate would have it, this occurred in Donna’s hometown and she was one of the first responders to the frantic 911 call. There were spider webs all over the bedroom, on the ceiling, in corners, a long web covering the window.</p><p>No spiders though, they all seemed to have vanished.</p><p>She had gotten a statement from a still hysterical Caitlyn. The only unusual thing she could remember was the creepy person sitting in a dark corner of the bar, hidden by shadows and a hoodie that covered his or her head. The person never moved. Caitlyn had kept experiencing that tingle you get when you feel like you are being watched and her eyes kept returning to that corner. The person didn’t drink, talked to no one, didn’t move until Caitlyn and Misty were leaving the bar. It bumped into Misty on his or her way out, the action seemed deliberate. Caitlyn had yelled after the person, calling whoever it was a dick, but it had kept on going.</p><p>Also, Misty had turned the lights on briefly when they entered the bedroom, the room had been neat and there had been no cobwebs.</p><p>And the only other thing she could think of, as she sipped the coffee Donna had given her and became calmer, was that Misty must have had some kind of skin condition. She hadn’t noticed her scratching at all while at the bar, but she had several times while Caitlyn was in the apartment, even while they were having sex. At the time, Caitlyn’s mind had been too full of other things to think too much about it. </p><p>The autopsy pictures Donna had slipped them earlier that night revealed that Misty’s body had been covered with deep scratch marks and gaping wounds.</p><p>“You probably are thinking spider bites, and yeah there are few. But that’s not what caused most of those wounds,” Donna had supplied, as she nabbed Sam’s untouched beer and took a drink. “The coroner says, although he knows it is impossible, it almost looks as if the spiders were inside her body and crawled their way out of her skin.”</p><p>“Talk about the opposite of getting lucky,” Dean had said.</p><p>“Is this – spider webs?” Sam had asked, indicating the last autopsy picture.</p><p>“Ya, her skull was full of them. Which is why I called you boys.” Donna finished Sam’s beer and shuddered. “I can’t stand spiders; they creep me the fuck out.”</p><p>It was then that Donna had gotten the call that Caitlyn had been rushed to the hospital. The EMT’s had found her covered in spiders.</p><p>They had decided to split up. Before Donna and Dean headed to the hospital, Donna had given Sam Caitlyn’s address and Dean had given him his lock picks along with a warning to be careful or else. Sam had agreed, without knowing for totally sure if Dean had meant with his car, or for Sam to be careful and not be caught. Knowing Dean, it was both.</p><p>Once the news spread that Caitlyn was dead, it probably wouldn’t be long before someone showed up here. One of Donna’s fellow police officers, or a family member, or maybe, considering the spiders, an exterminator. </p><p>He scans the living room, sees nothing of note. He glances in the kitchen, a few dishes in the sink, a box of cereal on the counter. No obvious spider webs, or spiders.</p><p>He skips the bathroom, acutely aware of time passing, and heads into what turns out to be the bedroom.</p><p>There are cobwebs everywhere, including the ceiling. Sam reaches for the top of his head, suddenly uneasy, his hand comes back sticky. The cobwebs are so dense and overpowering that even with the light on it feels dark in the room.</p><p>This wasn’t caused by any kind of creature that he and Dean have faced before. There is the residue of dark magic in the room, he can feel it.  </p><p>He wonders uneasily if witchcraft will be needed to defeat it.</p><p>Using magic has always made him feel like he is standing on a precipice, and if he turns just a little bit wrong, he will free fall into – something probably not good. Without Rowena to help guide him, he has all but stopped using magic.</p><p>He still feels it though, lurking within him, waiting.</p><p>He searches the room, looking for anything that seems out of place. He walks closer to the bed,  begins to pull back the cover with a gloved hand when he sees something out of the corner of his eye.</p><p>There is a spider on the nightstand, the only spider Sam has seen so far.</p><p>It seems bigger than normal spiders, not that Sam has spent a lot of time studying spiders.</p><p>It doesn’t move. Not even when Sam approaches it.</p><p>It just stays right there, little eyes watching him, its many legs still. It's alive, and its eyes track Sam in a way that makes Sam feel a bit unsettled.</p><p>He looks around for something to hit it with and spots a black thigh-high boot peeking out of under the bed. He pulls it out, holds it in the air, moves toward the spider slowly. It sits there, watching, waiting…</p><p>“Won’t help, Samuel. The wee little thing is creepy for certain, but it’s not the big bad you are after.”</p><p>Sam turns around so quickly he feels off-balanced. It’s been over two years since he had last heard that voice, but he would recognize that sultry lilt anywhere.</p><p>“Hello, Samuel,” Rowena says.</p><p>He doesn’t think, he just moves toward her, ready to grab her, to pull her in close.</p><p>But even though she looks the same, wearing a black leather skirt and a teeny tiny top, her red hair piled on top of her head and wearing five-inch heels that do nothing to hide how tiny she is, when he reaches her, he touches nothing but air.</p><p>“Let’s just say I had to make do, create a bit of a hole, barely big enough for our wee friend here,” Rowena says in answer to his unasked question, walking up to the spider. The spider tries to scramble away but doesn’t even make it to the end of the table before it falls over, dead. Rowena waves a hand airily and the spider vanishes. She turns back toward Sam. “We don’t have much time, Samuel, someone is coming. Hurry away, I’ll find you later and we will talk.”  </p><p>“Oh, and Samuel,” Rowena calls out as Sam starts to leave. “You might want to take a quick shower dearie; I think there might be a cobweb or two lurking in those luscious locks of yours.”</p><p>She winks at him and then fades away.</p><p>********</p><p>“So, like one of those old projectors they used to use in schools,” Dean says to Rowena.</p><p>Dean and Donna are sitting on bar stools, watching as Sam goes through the few ingredients he has stored in a small canvas bag.  </p><p>There isn’t much, and most of the herbs and plants are long past being useful for spells.</p><p>He feels guilty as he shows what he has to Rowena.</p><p>Rowena tuts her disappointment at both of the boys.</p><p>“No, Dean, pretty as I am, I am not a picture. I am casting my physical being through a barrier that was meant to keep us in, and rogues like you and your brother out. You know your boy Jack helped me with it, such a nice lad. Smart too. Knew Hell has a purpose and knew it was just the queen to leave me in charge of it.”</p><p>“Jack helped create the barrier?” Sam asks as he looks down at Rowena. True to Jack’s word, they haven’t heard anything from him since the day Jack had said goodbye.</p><p>“Aye, he helped seal Hell up tight. So, when I say it’s a tough to get through, you might get an inkling of how much magic I am using to be here.”</p><p>“Why are you here anyway?” Dean asks. “I mean, not that we don’t welcome the help, but we’ve been in tight spots plenty in the last few years and you haven’t come riding to our rescue any other time.”</p><p>“Believe it or not boys, I have more important things to worry about than the latest scrape the Winchesters have gotten themselves into,” Rowena replies. “I have a kingdom to run, sycophants to train, demons to keep in line. But this – this creature crawled out of Hell, and I want it back. It got through our barriers and it shouldn’t have been possible. If news of this gets out, if there is a hint that I can be disobeyed or worse, ignored, Hell will be pure chaos and not in a fun sexy way.”</p><p>“And what is this thing anyway?” Donna asks. “Something like Spiderman, but creepier?”</p><p>“The spiders are the infection, not the source. Hell is a big place children, bigger than you three can conceive. I haven’t even seen all of it, and I doubt my dear departed son did either. This thing was hiding somewhere, biding, waiting its time.” Rowena shrugs. “Doesn’t matter what it is, I just want it back.”</p><p>“Do we have enough here to do the spell?” Sam asks doubtfully. </p><p>Rowena sighs and Sam smiles fondly at how dramatic the sigh is. “No, not for a locator spell and we don’t have time to scrounge up what we need. I must admit I’m a wee bit disappointed in you Samuel, I left my mystical objects to you because I thought you would use them wisely and well, not so you could squander them. Be that as it may, we will have to make do with what little we have. We cannot find it, but perhaps it can find us. We won’t require much, just a black candle, a few drops of holy water, and this.”</p><p>She waves a hand, and the spider appears floating in front of Sam, Sam takes a few steps back before he remembers it is dead.</p><p>“I’ve got a black candle,” Donna says and grabs Dean's hand. “Come on, help me look. I also have some holy water in a jug in the basement.”</p><p>“You keep holy water in a jug?” Dean asks as he obediently follows Donna.</p><p>“There’s a stopper on it, it’s safe,” Donna retorts as they leave the kitchen.</p><p>“The things you left me, they are in a safe, warded place, ” Sam explains. He doesn’t want her to think he just abandoned them.</p><p>“I don’t care that they are safe, I care that they are not being used.” Rowena comes closer to him, close enough that he could reach out and touch her if she weren’t formed of shadows and mist.</p><p>“I haven’t had a chance to practice magic. Dean and I have been really busy – “</p><p>“And you are scared of the power you feel when you wield magic. Power isn’t inherently bad Samuel, or evil, or even corruptive. Power can be beautiful; power can be a blessing.” Rowena looks up at him through her long eyelashes. “Power can be fun.”</p><p>“The creature isn’t the only reason you came,” Sam says slowly, realization dawning.</p><p>“My dear boy, you know me so well. As I do you. We always have had a connection you and I, two lost souls drawn to each other. But now, because I died at your hands, you carry a part of me with you. It sings to me sometimes, and I know you are out there, still fighting and it brings me no small measure of joy.”</p><p>Sam feels a familiar well of guilt and he wants to express how sorry he is, but before he can, she puts her fingers on his lips, making a shushing sound. Maybe it is his imagination, but he almost feels them pressing against his mouth.</p><p>“It's the past, the past is the past is the past and I am happy where I am now. More than happy, I am thriving. It’s good to be Queen. I just want you to know, if there ever comes a time you feel lost and alone, if you call to me, I will find a way to come.”</p><p>Sam feels touched, and a bit confused. Her words almost feel like a warning. He starts to say something, but the words die in his throat when he looks down into her eyes.</p><p>She is looking up at him, and there is such profound sadness lurking there it takes the breath right out of him. And then, as if nothing had happened, she returns to her normal, brash self. “Have I ever told you that I used to dream at night of climbing you like a tree? Just starting on those long, long legs of yours and climbing my way – “</p><p>Dean and Donna pick that moment to return, laughing at something that had taken place in the basement. They have a black candle and a jug of holy water.</p><p>It’s time.</p><p>“I can’t do the spell properly as I am,” Rowena says. “It's up to you, Samuel.”</p><p>It surprises Sam that he feels excited about drawing from parts of himself he has ignored so long.</p><p>Sam sprinkles the dead spider with the holy water and pretends that he doesn’t notice it twitching.</p><p>He lights the candle; Donna turns out all the lights in the kitchen.</p><p>He notices that Rowena is glowing, it emanates from her skin, she shines in the dark room. Her long ruby earrings sparkle. She looks beautiful. And fierce.</p><p>“Close your eyes, Sam,” she tells him, and Sam does so. “Think about the thing out there, call to it.”</p><p>“Shouldn’t I have an incantation?” Sam asks after a few moments of silence.</p><p>“Close your eyes, Sam, let your mind search. You will find the words. You don’t need me or anyone else to give them to you. Concentrate  Let them come to you.”</p><p>Her words are soft, melodic.</p><p>Donna and Dean are silent, but Sam can feel them close by and their presence is reassuring.</p><p>He tries to focus; he feels someone shift beside him. Probably Dean. His thoughts scatter, even as he tries to gather them.</p><p>It’s been too long. He can’t do this.</p><p>He’s too rusty.</p><p>A hand brushes his arm. She whispers to him. “Concentrate Samuel, the words want to come to you. You just have to summon them.”</p><p>Sam feels the thrumming deep inside that he recognizes as the magic he carries. He lets go of his doubts, of his fears. The hand on his arm seems to steady him as he lets everything go.</p><p>The incarnation spills out from him.</p><p>
  <i> Silentium invicta animum noctis </i>
</p><p>He repeats the incantation a few times, there is a faint sound, almost like scratching.</p><p>He doesn’t open his eyes, but he reaches for the candle, knows exactly where it is, feels its heat as he holds it over the spider.</p><p>
  <i> Silentium invicta animum noctis </i>
</p><p>Donna screams.</p><p>Sam opens his eyes and looks at her.</p><p>She is staring at the counter, which is faintly illuminated by the candle and the glow emanating from Rowena.</p><p>“I’m not an expert on magic or anything, but I think you are doing it wrong,” Dean says.  </p><p>Where there was one spider, there are now dozens.</p><p>And these spiders aren’t dead.</p><p>“You are doing just fine lad,” Rowena says to him. “Don’t let one of these little buggers crawl on you though, it will just burrow itself right in and make itself at home.”</p><p>Donna and Dean take several steps back. There is a crunching sound. </p><p>Donna screams again and Dean curses.</p><p>Sam trails the candle’s light over the floor.</p><p>Spiders.</p><p>Everywhere.</p><p>“I’m getting the blowtorch,” Dean mutters, before heading toward the door.</p><p>“You are not using a blowtorch in my – “ a spider falls into Donna’s hair. She pulls it out, stomps on every spider within reach. “Give me the damn blowtorch, I’ll scorch the house if I have to, but these evil things are going down.”</p><p>“Quiet, Sam needs to concentrate,” Rowena orders, and they both fall silent. “Hand them the candle Sam, you don’t need it anymore and it will help keep the spiders at bay.”</p><p>Sam does. Dean looks at him, worry clear on his face. “You okay with this? We can stop, find another way.”</p><p>“I’m good,” Sam reassures him.</p><p>“Okay, but no more spiders though,” Dean says, a firm hand grips Sam’s shoulder and squeezes.</p><p>“No promises,” Sam smiles at his brother then turns back toward Rowena, closes his eyes again, tries not to think of tiny little legs crawling all over him.</p><p>“It’s close, I can feel it. It doesn’t want to, but it’s being compelled to come,” Rowena tells him.</p><p>Sam concentrates, tunes out everything but the dark, and Rowena’s hand is on his arm again, his only anchor in the darkness.</p><p>He says the words again.</p><p>
  <i> Silentium invicta animum noctis </i>
</p><p>The spiders are – clittering is the only word he can think to describe it. </p><p>Rowena’s long fingernails press into his arm, when did she become solid?</p><p>“Concentrate,” she whispers.</p><p>
  <i> Silentium invicta animum noctis </i>
</p><p>There is something in the air, causing the air to vibrate, to feel alive.</p><p>Sam opens his eyes and makes his demand. “Come!”</p><p>The door bursts open. Dean pushes Donna behind him, but the thing standing there isn’t looking at them.</p><p>Its face is more than half gone, more bone than skin, It has too many limbs to be human, but it's human like enough to unsettle. Where there should be eyes, there is something dark and cloudy, where there should be a mouth, there is a gaping hole.</p><p>It smells like decaying flesh and ash.</p><p>The spiders rush to it. Climb all over it. It doesn’t notice or doesn’t care, as they crawl into the many openings on its body.</p><p>“Together,” Rowena says, and her hand grasps his. She feels fully solid now like she was alive again and Sam’s hand engulfs her as he squeezes it.</p><p>He feels a surge of power such as he has never felt before, not even when Lucifer wore him, or  when Meg had taken him for a ride, or when he had killed Lilith.</p><p>Dean pulls Donna with him and they stand behind Sam and Rowena. Sam feels Dean’s hand on his back. “You’ve got this,” Dean says to him, with all the confidence in the world that Sam does, and Sam feels the power within him expand.</p><p>The thing hisses as it rushes toward them. Rowena and Sam’s hands shoot out and the thing is halted, so close that Sam can feel its putrid breath on his face. Rowena snarls something in a language so ancient that Sam doesn’t recognize it and there is a huge wave of what looks like to be black dust. Sam summons everything he has to push against the dust, and he feels Rowena doing the same. The whirlwind of dust engulfs the creature as it shrieks, carries the thing back out the door, the door slams and the room is quiet.</p><p>“Is it dead?” Donna asks after a long moment of silence.</p><p>Rowena lets go of Sam’s hand. Sam feels tired all of a sudden, unsteady. Dean, being Dean, seems to pick up it immediately. He pulls a stool over, guides Sam to sit on it.</p><p>Rowena shrugs. “I don’t think it can be killed, but it’s back in Hell, and I intend to make sure it stays there. Also, that it understands just how deeply unhappy I am with it.”</p><p>Dean hands Sam a glass of water. “I kinda missed you around here Rowena, things are a bit quiet without you and much too normal.”</p><p>“Same,” Rowena says, and she stands on tiptoes to kiss Dean’s cheek. “But just so we are clear, neither you nor your brother is welcome in Hell.”</p><p>“Thank Jack,” Dean replies. “Hey, Donna let’s get the blowtorch anyway huh? If we are really lucky, maybe we’ll find a stray spider or two.”</p><p>“Why not?” Donna asks. “Not like I’ll ever be able to sleep here again, not without dreaming of those tiny legs crawling all over me.”</p><p>They are kidding.</p><p>Sam is fairly sure.</p><p>He knows it’s Dean not so subtle way of letting him have a minute with Rowena.</p><p>“I’ve got to go,” she says after they leave the room. “I need to mend the hole I created, make sure the creature is locked down, check on the minions. They’re probably missing sucking up to me.”</p><p>“I am sure they are,” Sam stands, feeling steadier. He bends down to hug Rowena, she’s no longer as solid as she had been when they were facing the creature together, but it still feels good to hold her in his arms for a second.  </p><p>She takes his ear and tugs, for a mostly un-solid person she pulls pretty hard. “And Samuel. a talent like yours is a gift, and it should not be wasted.”</p><p>“Yes ma’am,” Sam replies, rubbing his ear.</p><p>“Don’t ma’am me, or I will take you over my knee, giant or not,” Rowena replies and then winks. “Actually, I think we might both enjoy that.”</p><p>Sam can feel himself blushing, he is nowhere near clever enough to come up with a comeback even if he had time to do so. Rowena is fading.  </p><p>“Remember what I said dear boy if you need me, just call. I will come, don’t doubt that.”</p><p>And then she is gone.</p><p>Sam gathers up his small pile of his mostly useless mystical items and places them back in the bag.</p><p>He can still feel magic lingering in the room, the air is heavy with it.</p><p>Maybe ignoring something that is a part of him wasn’t the best move after all.</p><p>Maybe exploring magic will still be like standing on a precipice.</p><p>And yeah, he could fall.</p><p>But maybe it’s a risk he’s ready to take.</p><p>Something glittering catches his eye, he reaches down and picks it up off the floor.</p><p>One of Rowena’s earrings, ruby red, lies sparkling in his hand.</p><p>He slips it in his pocket.</p><p>Maybe he’ll have a chance to return it to her someday.</p>
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